The Human Division Quotes
"If one was going to issue an invitation, one should be prepared to have it accepted."
"We’re not breaking any laws. What we’re doing is literally exploiting a loophole."
"The bridge crew has worked together for a long time, and you have to remember that they pass a lot of information internally."
"It was about as exciting as watching paint dry."
"The human race has always been outnumbered out here. But we’ve managed to keep our place in the scheme of things."
"We were asked to get you here three days ahead of the Utche arrival. We delivered you three days, six hours early."
"The existence of the Conclave has changed the math of human survival in ways we cannot yet imagine."
"Diplomacy is the best way to make that happen."
"The Clarke is a diplomatic vessel. We have no offensive weapons and only a bare minimum of defensive capability."
"Negotiations broken off, diplomacy over, the Colonial Union and the Utche back at each other’s throats."
"I think it changed their plans," Wilson said. "They had to kill the Polk when it arrived early, and they had to get rid of as much of it as possible to leave in doubt what happened to it."
"Whoever they are. We’re the wild card in the deck. And it doesn’t change the fact that the Utche are still a target."
"No," Wilson said. "I was able to read the missile’s instruction set, but I can’t do anything to change it."
"Then we’ll all have bigger problems, won’t we," Wilson said.
"I always think it’s funny when people get told what they are by other people," Wilson said. "As if they didn’t already know."
"I look at it this way," Wilson said. "Even if it doesn’t work, we have proof we did everything we could to stop the attack on the Utche."
"If everything doesn’t go well?" Schmidt asked.
"They’re even better when you have a genetically-engineered body that never gets fat," Egan said.
"If you’re new to space travel, and don’t have your own fleet of ships, then what you and I see as old and past its prime will look shiny and new."
"It’s not what the Rally is about, it’s who is going to be there with me."
"We have enough issues to deal with without adding unnecessary conflict to the negotiations."
"The truth is, the Colonial Union hasn’t been keeping us down. It’s been keeping us free."
"I think as a result I’m being led down a very short pier."
"If I fail at a negotiation because of my own failures, I accept that. If I fail because I’m being screwed by my own side, that I will not accept."
"If they do ask about the wildcat colony, then we tell them that as soon as we found out about it, we moved to remove them—so quickly that we didn’t ask permission first, so sorry."
"What do you want from us, Ambassador?" Egan asked Abumwe. "I want to know what’s really going on," Abumwe said.
"You got a quarter to turn it around. You know it and so do I. You better get to work."
"How I know your numbers isn’t really the important thing here, Mr. Birnbaum. The important thing here is how I can help you get those numbers up."
"It’s never a dull day in the lower reaches of the Colonial Union diplomatic corps."
"You can’t get it off him because it’s tangled in his hair. You can’t get it off him because microscopic fibers have come off the crown and physically attached themselves to him, binding the crown to his physical body."
"He’s from Chicago, and these days I live on Erie."
"How could I possibly forget your constant companion. I was worried that you were not going to be able to get him past quarantine."
"The gist, as you say, is that I have a personal message and a bargain for the Colonial Union from General Gau."
"You know by now that I enjoy giving you shit about the Cubs."
"That you weren’t just fucking with me about the Cubs."
"I would probably kiss every woman I saw. And most of the men, too."
"I don’t want a shotgun to the face," Lee said.
"I feel as if I should apologize to Six," Lee said.
"You remember that part where my genetically-engineered eyes are about ten times better than yours, right, Hart?" Wilson said.
"I think that’s the wisest course, yes," Wilson said.
"It’s a good thing I’m a diplomat," Lowen said.
"But if you smell, I’m pushing you out an airlock."
"I’d like to think he just got there on his own."
"This is a very interesting theory you have, about conspiracy."
"I have to tell you that I tend to go to bed early on Harvest Day."
"You asked for help. You tried. And even right now, if you wanted to keep trying, it's clear I couldn’t stop you."
"I’m not going to lie to you, but I can understand wanting to get your body back."
"Because right now, I think we all need a drink."
"But if you wanted to keep trying, it’s clear I couldn’t stop you."
"People see conspiracies because they believe that one person could not do so much damage."
"The good news is that you will indeed be taking the beanstalk. The bad news is that you’ll be taking it up, back from Earth, almost immediately after you land."
"We’re going to be dealing with that for a few months. Meanwhile, whatever else these people are doing—like what the plan was behind Carvalho’s killing Liu Cong—gets put on the back burner."
"I remember that for all of the sins of the Colonial Union—and it has sins, Harry—the Earth would always have its wars and its refugees, and the Colonial Union kept its doors open to them."
"The past is the past and you let things go because you can’t change them anyway."
"You mean, random man comes in, tells you a story that, as ridiculous as it is, perfectly explains the problem of Luiza Carvalho murdering Liu Cong, pays for your drink and then tells you not to go home?"
"If you had just admitted this up front, we could be done by now."
"I was just talking about how hard it is to be right all the time."
"No shuttle here, Wilson thought. Then he thought of something else."
"I need you to take off your clothes because I need you to get into this."
"Yes," Wilson said, forcefully. "The station is under attack, Dani. We're sealed off."
"For the record, this was not really how I planned to get undressed with you."
"You’re a good ship," she said. "I’m glad you were mine."
"It’s the same in a lot of ways. I’m excited to go, to see what’s out there in the universe."